Q: How do you make holy water?
A: You boil the hell out of it!
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Andy and The Zodiac Crystal – Chapter 29
“ANDY, don’t make any sudden moves…” said my father who was already doing his best to heed to his own words.
I looked over to Chris and he nodded in silence as if to tell me it was ok to use my Zodiac abilities. Meanwhile the bear continued to make its strange noises, some of which even sounded like growls and snorts.
“Sagittarius…” I whispered the sign as silently as possible, hoping neither my father or Chris’s heard me.
“I NEED YOUR HELP ANDY!”
The words were coming from the black bear who seemed to be in a good amount of distress. With the communication ability now activated, I could tell the bear was female.
“What’s wrong? And how do you know my name?”
“BE QUIET ANDY! PLEASE DON’T SAY ANOTHER WORD!” Chris’s father said, obviously frightened.
“I don’t have time to explain, will you follow me? I promise I won’t hurt you” said the female bear.
It was strange enough for me to be seeing a bear in the woods while hiking, but even stranger hearing one actually talk to me. Yet somehow, I knew I needed to try to help her. But how was I going to follow her and explain it to my father or Chris’s? Then it hit me and I suddenly knew what I needed to do.
After nodding approvingly to the bear, letting her know I would follow her, I looked back over at Chris and mouth the words, “I got this.”
“Sagittarius. Libra.”
WHOOSH.
Time then abruptly stood still. Chris and his father, as well as my own all became like those creepy mannequins from a clothing store. It was really rather funny to see them each in this state. Part of me wanted for a brief moment to play a joke on them by moving their hands and arms into odd positions, but I decided against it given the urgency of the present situation.
I then walked towards the female bear and it almost appeared as if she was a huge stuffed animal, like one of those you could win at a carnival for the ring toss game that one rarely ever gets around the tops of those large glass bottles.
As soon as I reached her, I quickly deactivated and reactivated Libra while my hand was firmly placed on her coarse fur, instantly watching as she came alive from her frozen stance. I looked back at Chris and our father’s and noticed they were still frozen. And although I knew I couldn’t communicate to her in this zodiac state, I moved my head in a way as if to signify I was ready to follow her. Somehow she seemed to understand because we began walking away from the trail I was just on, away from my closest friend and our fathers, and away from anything that felt essentially safe.
I honestly had no idea how far we were going to go in the woods, how I would ever find my way back, and whether I truly could trust this bear. But somehow my footsteps kept moving forward at a fast pace behind the bear who was moving rather quickly. At one point, I was almost having to jog to keep up.
And then I saw what the source of her distress was as we approached what appeared to be her den. There in front of it was her mate in mid-stance, pawing at a huge boulder that had somehow fallen in front of its entrance. It immediately became apparent that having Libra activated was only causing her more distress when she saw he wasn’t moving. It was then I knew I needed to un-pause time, as much as that was only going to cause great alarm to my father and Chris’s.
“Libra.”
WHOOSH.
Suddenly I could hear tiny little squeals of fear coming from inside the small cave, which I could only amass was from their offspring. When the male bear turned and saw my presence, he began to charge, obviously quite angry. The female bear unexpectedly jumped directly in front of me, guarding me as if one of her own. After listening to their various grunts and snorts, I watched as he eventually backed off and returned to pawing at the boulder unsuccessfully. She then turned around and began uttering some of those strange sounds to me.
“Sagittarius.” I quickly enabled the communication sign so that I could understand her, really wishing at that moment I could use two abilities at once. Unfortunately, because I couldn’t, I was quite sure my father was getting overly frantic right now, but hopefully Chris would somehow be able to diffuse the situation.
“Andy, can you help us? Our baby is on the other side of that huge boulder.”
“I think I can, but I have to know, how do you know my name and how could you possibly have known who I was in the middle of these woods?”
“The whole woods have been talking about you today Andy. We heard a rumor yesterday from a pair of squirrels about a boy who was able to communicate with animals. When we asked them how a thing such as that could be true, they said they had caught wind of two geese who supposedly spoke with him and learned his name was Andy.”
“WELL ARE YOU GOING TO HELP OR ARE YOU JUST GOING TO SIT THERE AND TALK ABOUT NOTHING IMPORTANT!” said the angry father, still pawing at the boulder, hoping somehow it was going to move for him to reach his crying cub.
“VERNON, RELAX! Andy, can you help us somehow?”
“Yes, but I won’t be able to understand you for a few moments while I do ok?”
I then deactivated Sagittarius as she nodded and then activated the only ability I knew could help.
“TAURUS.”
As I proceeded rather cautiously over to the small cave’s entrance, I looked at Vernon who growled at me and then slowly backed away. The boulder that had fallen in front of it was much bigger than the one I had picked up and thrown during my training days with Chris, but I was confident it wasn’t going to pose a problem for me. But instead of me trying to pick it up this time, I decided to use a small crack in the lower left corner to move it. After placing both of my hands in it, I could feel a tiny tongue licking them from inside the den causing me to smile a little.
“You’re going to be ok little one.” I said while slowing pulling the rock towards me. In a few seconds, I had created enough space for the small cub to escape into the arms of Vernon. And as the bears began to comfort their young one, I crawled into the cave and completely pushed the boulder out from the opening and down into a small gulley nearby. Little did I know there were a number of birds in the trees above, as well as a number of squirrels and other forest creatures nearby, all watching intently. Each of whom scattered away as the thunderous noise of the boulder came to an abrupt halt.
“Taurus. Sagittarius.”
“Oh Martha, you’re safe now pumpkin. No need to worry anymore. Andy saved you.” said Vernon to his small cub who was crying. “And I’m sorry Delilah for getting so angry…”
“Oh Vernon, it’s fine, but one of these days you’re hopefully going to start trusting me a little more.” Delilah said slightly sarcastically.
“I know hon; I know…”
Martha then left her father’s side and slowly approached me.
“Thank you Mr. Andy for saving me.”
“It’s no problem little one. I’m just glad you’re ok.” I crouched down and gently touched the hair on her, which felt incredibly soft.
“So Delilah, how did you know I was that boy the rest of the woods seemed to be talking about?”
“To be honest I’ve always had this inner guidance about things.”
“You mean an intuition?”
“Something like that, or maybe one might say I had a gift from our Creator.”
“So how did that lead you to me?”
“Well, as best as I can put it, I kept hearing a voice within me that said to head off in the direction I found you. Vernon wasn’t all too happy with me though when I decided to follow my gift.”
“Gifts, schmifts, you’re just lucky I say” grunted Vernon, apparently not a believer in her ability.
“Scoff as you may Vern, eventually I did run into him on that hiking trail by following that luckiness of mine. And when I did Andy, I began trying to communicate to you saying your name and hoping it was you and that you would understand me.”
“Wow, that’s pretty cool.” I said as continued to rub Martha’s soft fur, who clearly was enjoying all the attention.
“So then is it true Mom?” said Martha looking over to her mother.
“Is what true?” I said sounding clueless to what Martha was speaking of.
“The prophecy.”
“What prophecy?”
“Long ago, there was a story passed along from a Native American who had similar abilities to you Andy.” Delilah said. “He spoke of a crystal that gave him his great abilities and was blessed upon him by some Divine Beings. And that one day his crystal would reach the hands of a young boy who would have a great mission, even greater than his. One that would help unite the world in greater peace and love.”
“Are you serious???”
“Why would I make something like that up?”
“What about the rest of the prophecy Mom? You didn’t tell him the rest of it.”
“Let’s not overwhelm him anymore than he looks right now ok Martha?”
“No please tell me. I want to know…”
“Well if you insist, the other part of the story is that there was also another crystal, equal in power to the one the Native American had, but guided by the forces of darkness. And anyone who possessed it would always find the light-based crystal and attempt to extinguish it and its wielder…”
For once I became totally speechless and felt something I hadn’t felt to this depth since discovering the crystal.
Terror…and lots of it…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson